Tooele residents say Holiday Oil put diesel in unleaded tanks

TOOELE — Paul Mascarenas went to Holiday Oil just before noon Saturday to fill up his car with gas.

He made it only a quarter-mile from the gas station at 608 N. Main before his car stalled.

Mascarenas spent the rest of the day trying to diagnose the problem before he got a tip from the Tooele Classifieds Facebook page. According to Mascarenas, a post on the page warned residents to not get fuel at Holiday Oil because there was diesel fuel in the unleaded gasoline tanks.

The Tooele resident said he called the gas station Saturday, and employees there confirmed there was a problem and took his phone number.

“Their pumps are all shut down. They’re turned off,” Mascarenas said Sunday. “They’re open, but they’re only (selling) 85 octane diesel fuel. Their 89 and 91 octane fuel is all closed off, so they know they have a problem.”

When he went to the gas station Sunday to make sure his name and phone number had been written down, Mascarenas said he saw a list of about 50 other names.

The manager of the Holiday gas station refused to comment Sunday, referring media to the company's corporate office. Attempts to reach Holiday Oil Co. on Sunday were unsuccessful.

The issue has gotten a lot of attention on social media, with dozens of posts on Facebook about Holiday Oil customers having car problems.

“We really don’t know if it’s the wrong kind, if it’s been messed with or anything," Tooele resident Carol Haddock said. “There have been several people on (Facebook) that say that their car just stopped working. They don’t know what happened. They all figured out that they’d gone to Holiday gas station.”

Mascarenas said he's tried contacting the corporate office and is frustrated at the lack of response, especially with Monday being a federal holiday. He said he had to borrow a car to get to Salt Lake City on Sunday and will have to figure something out for Monday so he can make his 20-mile commute to work.

“And the problem is my car doesn’t run, and I’ve got to get to work still,” Mascarenas said. “I’ve tried calling their corporate office. I’ve tried calling everyone I could find on the Internet, and just nobody is willing to move anything any faster.”

He said he wouldn’t have known what was going on if he hadn’t stumbled upon the Facebook page.

“It makes me wonder, too, how many people are out there that have no clue what’s going on with their car," Mascarenas said.